Boy do I need help and fast! I was on Ebay and bid on a lot of 345 unmounted rubber stamps and for some reason I won. Which is great but what do I do to organize all these stamps so I can use them? I don't have more than 1 or 2 unmounted stamps and I have no idea how to "house" them or where to get what I need! Any suggestions or advice would be gratefully received!

If you use the EZ Mount or the Original Cling Mounting Foam (both are exactly the same product) you can store them a couple of ways. Some people put them in cd cases as the cushion will cling to that. Others put them in binders. If you put them in binders they sell plastic sheets that the stamps with cushion will cling to. Then you can have an opposing paper sheet next to it with all of those images stamped out.

Wow!! I do believe you will be overwhelmed when they arrive!! Congratulations (I guess) on winning the bid.

There are so many ways to store UMs it becomes a personal choice depending on your current stamping set-up. Do you have an exclusive room? Do you have lots of bookshelf space? (for 3-ring binders) Or, do you have more options for storing video cassette plastic cases?? Some people love the EZMount plastic 3-ring insert pages that allow cling-mounted stamps to stick to these pages; after a significant amount of these have been added to the binder, though, it becomes very heavy and awkward to pull off a shelf. How are your wrists?

Others categorize into themes that make the most sense to them, and store like UMs in CD jewel cases -- placing white cardstock inside and stamping the image that the case contains.

If you have too many in one theme, you might like the video cassette boxes. You can still stamp an index on the cardstock inserted inside the cassette, and the thicker binding edge allows for more detailed labelling than the jewel cases.

What you might want to do is invest in a couple of sheets of Tack-n-Peel. It's a clingy, spongy cushion that you place onto your acrylic block; and even though it's somewhat cloudy, you can pretty much see through it. That'll save you big bucks initially on other forms of cling vinyl, but will allow you to slap your UM onto the Tack-n-Peel, stamp, identify, categorize, etc., without a hugh cash outlay.

I use Aleen's tack it over and over, a thin application so it doesn't get over
sticky, then place the image on parchment paper or transparencies and put it
in a 3-ring binder with some extra old presentation sheets for protection.

I have found that the smaller images do better with cling mount. I cheat and
even use doubled over masking tape on some of the larger images. I haven't
quite figured out how I am going to store these images. . .bigger than a CD
case.

I bought a grab bag at Xmas time; took me quite a while to sort through
the images. Good luck!

I have thousands of UMs and, until recently, was using plastic baseball card storage pages in 3-ring binders to hold them. Each page has 9 pockets. I bought the card holding pages at WalMart by the collectors sport cards. A pack of 10 was only a few dollars.

These pages are also great for storing your ATCs in a binder - 9 per page!

When I want to stamp with the UMs, I simply put a piece of double-stick Scotch tape on a block of acrylic or a mounted stamp, slapped on teh UM inage and stamped it (a bit of cushioning under the paper helps make a clear image). WHen I'm done stamping I pull off the UM and drop it into a bowl of water or across a wet washcloth.

I did have to switch from the baseball card pages to video boxes recently - I had too many UMs in too many categories for the binder system. But with only 300+ you shouldn't have any problem.

After trying several um mounting methods (I have a bordering phobia about the old cling mount system ), I discovered the HALOS (Hooked And Looped On Stamps) system for using my ums. It involves applying Velcro loop tape to the back of the rubber dies and using acrylic blocks with hook tape either in grooves or applyed in translucent sheets to one side of the block (This allows one to use cling mounted as well & only need one set of blocks). Here's the site for more info:

I had already invested in several Iris drawer units & didn't have space for more shelves when I went um, so this method allows me to store my stamps in labeled zip bags in labeled drawers. Before I put new images away I stamp them into my index binder that is arranged in catagories that correspond to the drawers and each zip bag has all the images from the same page in the binder. When I want an image & can't remember which drawer & bag it's in, I can look it up. Granted, I have a rather large collect of both mounted & unmount images and my binder is now a 4" D ring that is overfull (I really need to make the investment in a 6" binder soon ), but I started using this mounting system when my collection was much smaller & have no regrets.

To be fair...the ez-mount cling system is a great improvement over it's predecessor & if I had encountered it instead of the earlier version I might have gone with that instead.

An easy method for using Um's until you figure something more permanent out is to use washable glue stick. You don't need to cover the entire back of the stamp, just enough to keep it on the handle temporarily. When done just wash off in the sink but be sure to close the drain so you don't loose any . Also be sure that you use some sort of padding underneath for cushion or you might not get a good impression.

Oh you all are so good! I have good intentions myself, but I'd rather play than organize the rubber! it's such a big job retro fitting the stamps!
I love all the ideas, and maybe I'll get the organizing bug soon. For now I'll keep using the double sided tape, a mouse pad and keep looking for that elusive stamp lost in the bottom of the basket some where!

I like using the baseball card holder sheets as well as the slide holder size and there are some that have 4 pockets as well. pretty inexpensive. I cut down scrap cardstock or index cards to size of the pocket , stamp the image and put the image faceing out with the stamp behind it in each pocket. makes it easier when you are looking thru the stamps.
I was really lucky one day at work and someone was tossing 6 perfectly good 4 inch wide binders. so i have plenty of room to catagorize my stamps.